What I Wasn't Expecting
by ChibiAuthorChan
Summary: The Zombie Apocalypse which started in the United States has now revenged the entire planet. In that time much of the earth's population was now walking with the hoard. Arthur Kirkland has so far managed to survive the undead. One day while checking his traps for any possible meals, he instead finds an American teen in need of some help. Rated T for language and slight violence.
1. Hangin' Around

Hey guys! Guess who's not dead! So I was going a project for English, just a short little thing, so I decided to upload it. Let me know if you think I should make this into a full story!

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While in the forest I was expecting to run into a zombie or two, possibly find a shelter, maybe a rabbit or deer, or a weapon left behind by someone who couldn't fend off the hoard of undead. However, a human was not on the list. I came across the fellow while checking some of my traps for a possible dinner, he certainly wasn't a forest creature, he did smell like one though. Even in an apocalypse a gentleman is still a gentleman, not taking care of yourself is just as deadly a killer as the brainless monsters were. This man however clearly wasn't worried about dying from an infection or disease. I had never laid eyes on a filthier human being, even in the apocalyptic setting. He had gotten his leg caught in one of my snares and dangled from a tree. Twisting about trying to free himself he was certainly stronger than he looked, still looked to be in his late teens however. His golden hair was knotted and matted sticking out in old angles, bits of leaves and twigs added into the mix. His skin had either a tan shade or a few layers of caked dirt, mud, and dust. The clothes he was wearing were in serious disarray. It seemed his leather bomber jacket was the only thing that wasn't torn excessively. The red, white, and blue tee-shirt underneath had been torn in the front, bandages wrapping a wound were visible though the ripped fabric. The lad's jeans were worn at the knees, the ends were frayed, and gashes on the left leg looking as if something had tried to grab him. Crimson splatters decorated his body, begging the question if the blood was his or someone, or something else's. The boy turned his attention to the ground below him, glasses, the right frame had been cracked a bit, but other than that the spectacles seemed perfectly fine. Not only did he look like he had been living in the forest for a few years he smelled like it too. Even from my hiding spot several feet from him I could still smell his odor. The smell of dirt was the first thing recognized, still familiar from when I used to garden. The second thing, the body odor. The lad hadn't bathed in a long while and was in great need of it. The scent of rotting flesh was also present, though it had become a normality nowadays. Giving up on retrieving his glasses the boy looked around the clearing, I have no idea how but somehow he spotted me. At the sight of another living creature his face lit up, his sky blue eyes widened in delight , he smiled. The grin would've been extremely charming is he didn't look like an absolute disaster, complete with bits of food stuck in his teeth.

"Hey you! Don't try to hide again I know you're there! I, uh, could you maybe lend me a hand, or a knife?"

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So, that's it! What do you think should I keep this going? Let me know, don't forget to like, favorite, and follow! Until I write again! See ya later!


	2. Uh-hoagie?

I stepped out from my hiding place, walking over to stood right in front of the beaming blond. Because of the lad's upside down position the two of us were eye to eye, one more step would close the gap between us. I had my reasons for not taking that final step. Mainly that if the distance separating us shrunk any more the stench that clung to the boy would've gagged me.

"Oh yea, and why should I? I have no reason to free you. What benefit would letting you go give me, hmm? Maybe I want to keep you hanging upside down like a twat."

The boy's smile faded, his large dimples disappearing. His expression grew more serious, his eyes lost their shimmer, and he knit his eyebrows together. He moved his hand and tried to brush some of his stay hairs out of his face, though gravity held them in place, trying to move them was futile.

"Look pal. I know the world is in a mess, everything's gone to hell. I don't want any trouble. right now all I want is to be right side up again. However, if you really want nothing to do with me, then let me go and I'll be on my way. But you and I both know survival gets easier with an ally. If you want, in exchange for my freedom, I can team up with you for a while."

I scoffed, trying to keep up the outward image of being irritated by the boy. Honestly I felt a bit bad for extinguishing the childish air of the lad.

"Fine, I'll let you go. But if we're to be allies, then I will be in charge. As my first order of business, I order you to take a bath when we get to my base in this state you're a hazard to yourself as well as me." My gaze turned to the tree the blue eyed boy was hung from. If anything the apocalypse was keeping me fit, all of the running and climbing I did. Grabbing branch after branch I pulled myself up the Oak, stopping at the limb on which the trap was attached to. "I'm going to start unknotting the rope now, try not to fall and crack open your head will you?"

"Wait, wait, shouldn't you give me more of a warning before-" the fellow didn't get to finish his sentence before he was on the ground, still upside down, "you untie me…"

"Well you did want to get down didn't you?"

"Yea, but I would rather not have landed on my head." He shifted from his flopped over position he fell into after landing. Rubbing his head, he ran through his golden-brown hair with his hands trying to get the strands to lay in a more natural position. He parted his hair combing more of it over to his left side. The lad then picked out the small leaves and branches that had been caught in his locks.

"You missed a spot." I said, before shifting my view from the lad's face. I didn't want him to think I was staring, and I certainly wasn't!

"Huh? Where?"

"Right there, it's in front of your part, it's sticking almost straight up."

"Oh that, yea it's just like that. No matter what I do it just sticks up like that. I had a friend from Japan he said something about it being common in anime. It's called an uh-hoagie or something like that." He looked around on the ground for his glasses while he spoke. Once he found them he set them back on their usual spot upon his face. Eyes widening as did his smile. "Nice, I can see again!" His head turned and he gazed around the clearing with clear vision. The lad took one glance at me and said, "Dude, what's up with your eyebrows?! I thought it was just my poor vision before, but seriously what's up with them, they're huge!" He joked with a light tone in his voice though it still sounded rather offensive.

"My eyebrows are perfectly normal!" I shouted, warmth flooding to my cheeks, flushing from anger, or embarrassment, or possibly both. My fists clenched urging me to throw a punch. I restrained myself for I'm a gentleman after all. Then huffing before I continued my lecture. "I'll have you know your condition is much worse than mine! Maybe instead of worrying about my completely normal eyebrows, you should worry about your own sorry looking self!" I paused, looking over the boy for more things to point out before continuing on. "Honestly, you managed to fix your hair, though it still needs a good wash, your whole self needs one! Those clothes need to be fixed, the tears may look 'cool' but they're only going to get you killed faster. Not to mention that stench! I'm surprised you haven't lured all the zombies in with your odor!"

"You done?"

"I could go on, but first things first we need to get you cleaned up. We're going to temporary base now so follow closely and don't fall behind."

"Turning, I started to make my way to my temporary shelter, but I was stopped when someone shouted out,

"Hey!"

"What is it?" I responded, turning only my head to the side so I could see the boy on the edge of my vision. He had moved closer to me, his right arm reached out, ready to grab me from behind. "What's your name?"

He sounded sincerely curious as he slowly lowered his arm back down to his side. The lad took another step forward and I turned to face him fully. When he wasn't hanging upside down from a tree, the boy was taller than me. Thankfully, not by much so I didn't need to tilt my head uncomfortably to look him in the eye.

"It's not really a good idea to share personal info like names, it makes it harder to kill if one were to turn."

"Would you rather have me just address you as Mr. Eyebrows?" My rage began to stir inside me once more. The cheeky brat was lucky I even let him down.

"Fine, if you insist we'll use code names." The boy sure knew how to pick a nerve, yet for some reason I had a hard time saying no.

"Fine by me! I'll be US and you'll be UK!" US sounded excited and cheery, like we were two kids playing pretend. It was one of his more charming traits, and one of his most irritating.

"US and UK? Oh how original. Let me guess you're from the United States?"

"How'd you guess?" He sounded too eager, and happy, and cheerful.

"Honestly, how daft can one be?"

"I'm just messing with you dude." He said, laughing it off as if he had told a mildly amusing joke. US playfully punched my arm, which I was not happy about. "Come on UK, let's get to that secret lair or something, I'm looking forward to finally being able to clean up." He started to walk ahead of me, leaving me standing in place, waiting for him to realize his mistake. Before the count of 5, he turned around and asked with an idiotic grin on his face. "Ah, which way is?"

"Idiot, just follow me. And don't memorize the way there! If a trail forms the undead can follow it." Briskly walking, I made my way in front of the American.

There was no way I was going to tell him that fairies were the ones that always showed me the way back to my headquarters, at least not back then. The fairies were the reason I never took the same way back. In fact, I doubt you could even find the place without the help of the spirits. They had been helping me since I was small, and that was one thing the apocalypse couldn't change. I had always been able to see magical creatures, I could understand them. I never met my mother but my father said she could understand them as well. It was a very rare thing, unlike the stories from days of old where everyone could claim to have seen a leprechaun or a dragon. When sciences evolved, people with the sight started to dwindle. Magic and science have a very fine line separating them. Most people had a hard time telling the difference and forgot about the magic, seeing only one side to the coin. The two are opposites ,one cannot be without the other. As for the zombies, they were creatures of science. They couldn't over power magic and magic couldn't over power them. It was most likely thanks to the help from my magical friends, that I survived that long. I walked along through the forest, following a fairy as she guided me back to my base. Before I knew it, I was back home with my new ally in tow.

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 **Notes on cultures!** (You'll find these at the ends of come chapters, most of the time it'll be Japanese stuff, "US" is going to bring some stuff up he learned about from Kiku a few times in this story. I know a bit about Japan as I'm learning the language and about the culture.)

US's "uh-hoagie": What US is referring to here is the ahoge (pronounced A-ho-ge) it literally means "foolish hair" a common trope in anime and manga (and I myself have a few hairs that won't do what I tell them to) it's sometimes use to show a foolish or carefree character. However that is not always the case. They are similar to cowlicks as both are hairs that don't lay in a "natural" way. But with an ahoge the hair sticks out from the rest of the hair, literally. Many Hetalia characters have ahoge which is how they got the nickname hetalia curls.

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Hey! Guys I got a beta! Thanks so much thelostdoitsu for helping me with this fic! As alway faves, follows, and reviews are appreciated! Now that I have a beta I'm looking over my stories more. (Looking back at some of my old stuff I can't believe what I messed up) My upload schedule may alter a bit, but still, seeing people reading, and liking my stories really motivates me to write more. Anyway, hope you all are enjoying this. Until I write next time, see ya later!


	3. Into The Woods (To Take A Bath)

**A/N: Hey guys! So I wanted to clear something up here. This story will have point of view switches! Sometimes they'll happen at the end of a chapter, sometimes in the middle, or in the end, or any time I feel it would be appropriate. These will be inside horizontal lines, infact, one starts off this chapter. Also, italics will be used when someone says something out of the story telling. Usually comments from US or UK while the story is going on. I hope this isn't too confusing and that you can tell who's saying what. If it gets to confusing I can figure out a better way. OK, let's get to the story, I've kept you waiting long enough.**

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"OK Mister 'UK', my turn to tell the story!" US smiled, pushing UK out of the way.

"No way, I'm telling the story you ninny!" The Brit argued back, trying to regain his control so he could continue.

"Nuh uh, my turn. You got to tell a fair chunk of it, it's my turn!"

Before the fuming European could say anything else, the American started talking. The green eyed one shut his mouth and slumped back in his seat in defeat, his face still giving of the impression he wasn't happy with this turn of events.

"Alright where were we… aha!"

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So we were standing outside of this small wall of tall, kinda thin, and bushy trees. UK was standing next to me, looking at the trees. I don't know why, but we stood there for a bit. It gave me time to look at the incredible wonder that was the wall of trees! OK, I'm exaggerating a bit. Mister Eyebrows, " _I thought you weren't going to call me that you git!"_ stared at those trees for a while. The guy was probably spacing out a bit, he had done that a lot on the way here. Turning my head, I looked around the place. Behind the wall of trees, were, well more trees. The interesting thing was that most wild life had started to slowly die. They weren't totally dead, they just weren't as green or colorful. Plants grew slower and not as much. It was part of the early stages of the zombie virus. I think the stuff kills cells and destroys them, I don't know, I wasn't the scientist of the family. Anyway, the weird thing about the trees UK was so interested in was that they didn't show any signs of stunted growth, or even the slightly dead look all plants now had. It was weird, though in this huge forest full of plants that were slowly (and I mean reeeeally slowly) dying, these lush green plants stuck out much more than a simple trail would. Without warning, the blond who had been standing beside me stepped forward. He parted the trees down the middle revealing a small passage we could walk through.

"Well, here it is. Keep close to me I can't have you getting lost in there." He didn't say anything else before stepping through the trees, I had to move quickly so I wouldn't be left behind.

While walking through the tree passage, I noticed two things. One was that the tunnel was dark. Even now that I had my glasses back, I still couldn't see anything around me. It was like we were walking along through space, except without the stars and planets and other spacey things. The second thing I noticed was the Brit walking in front of me. Back in the forest I hadn't gotten much chance to study him. I was too on edge looking out for the brainless monsters that might try to kill us. That, and I still didn't know if I could trust the guy who let me down. He was kinda rude, and temperamental, or maybe just regular mental. " _I heard that you idget!"_ He interrupts people when they're telling stories. But he did save me from dying while upside down so that's a plus.

The Englishman was shorter than me, like by a bit more than half an inch. " _Wait, should I give out the measurements using the imperial system or the metric system? I have no idea_." Well for those of you listening that don't measure things the best way he was shorter than me by about 2cm. His hair was blond like mine, but different. His was pale blond, mine's a golden-brownish shade of blond. It also looked shorter than mine, though it may just have been that his was choppier and less even, and he was the one yelling at me about the state of my hair. I've been told I'm not supposed to mention the eyebrows, so I'll just skip over those. I'd mention his eyes too but he wasn't facing me at the time. UK was paler than me, not by much though. Somehow he had managed to not have his clothes torn to shreds. The clothes he wore looked like a cross between casual military and a wannabe rocker. He wore black lace up military looking boots that were just below the knee. Black jeans were worn on his lower half with the ends tucked into his boots. The pants were just loose enough to allow him to move with ease. He had a light weight, long sleeved white shirt underneath a sleeveless dark camo huddle covering his upper half.

It felt like he had been walking for hours. When I complained, UK stated that it had barely been three minutes before muttering something under his breath about a child. I leaned to the side so I could see around him, trying to look above his head just gave the view of the darkness surrounding us. But when I leaned to the side, I also saw a light.

"Are we there yet? Is that the base?" I asked excitedly, and I was. Excited to get to the Brit's base and clean up. Hopeful that once I got cleaned up, the two of us could have a conversation that didn't involve the way I smelled or how dirty I looked.

"For the first time since you asked that question I can finally give you a different answer." He let out a sigh of relief. "We're almost there. Honestly, how often can one ask the same question within a span of 5 minutes? Come on pick up the pace, you're the reason it's taking so long."

"What do you mean I'm the reason?!"

"If you weren't so slow we would've been there much sooner."

"Hey I'm stuck behind you, I can't go much faster." I didn't want to mention that I'd rather be closer to the guy and not running through what seemed to be a creepy dark hole. Even if I wasn't scared of the dark (you never know what's in it!) I don't know how anyone could be so calm walking in the complete darkness, it didn't even seem like we were moving. But now that I could see the light, it wasn't so bad. "Well if you wanted to go faster you should've said something!"

I pushed the other man aside and took off, running past him. He yelled something back at me, but I couldn't tell and didn't care. He started to run after me, but I didn't look back. I was dead set on getting to that light. It didn't take long since I was running. Bursting through the lit opening like a football player running through that paper thingy. I stood there for a second, my eyes blinded, trying to adjust to the light. When I could finally see again, I was blown away.

What was revealed was breathtaking. A small haven compared to the outside world. It was like a magic garden. The trees near the entrance the plants were at full strength, no signs of the wilting that the rest of the world's ecosystems showed. Looking upwards gave a view of the sun. At the time, the sun was a rare view, usually clouds blocked it off but here it shone warmly though the tree canopy covering the clearing. Near the corner of the space was a pond, it even had running water! The water was almost crystal clear, another rare thing to see. The place wasn't gigantic, about the size of a regular lot where one could build a decent sized house. Which the Brit did, sort of. It wasn't a house exactly, more like a fancy shelter since it was larger than one usually would be. It was well constructed, even out of planks almost like a real house with walls and a roof to boot! It Looked to have multiple rooms. There was actual grass on the ground, most of it had already died in other places around the globe. There were also flowers and trees making up a small orchard, a garden with vegetables and lettuce, it was just so unreal.

Suddenly, I was pulled out of my awe when I heard that the other guy managed to catch up, moving so he stood next to me.

"You bloody wanker, what made you think you could run off like that?!" From the tone of his voice it sounded like he was pretty upset.

"How?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"How, this, this whole place! How does it even exist?! It's like a small pocket of space where the zombie virus never even existed."

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you…" His voice dropped, stopping for a bit before continuing on. "Anyway, let's get to what I brought you here for. You can clean off in the lake, I don't have any soaps or shampoos though, so you'll just have to scrub. Don't worry about the water, it's in a moving system so it'll clean itself. If you give me your clothes I can wash them and patch them up. Now hurry up before you stink up my home."

Before I knew it, I had been stripped of everything but my boxers and shoved off to the lake. UK had taken my clothes, my glasses were set by the edge of the water. When I looked down I remembered about the bandage wrapped around my stomach. A zombie had managed to swipe at me and it cut a slash diagonally over my gut. The bandages were dark red because the blood had dried. Carefully ,I unwrapped the strips, checking to see if it was safe to take them off. The wound wasn't deep thankfully, so it had healed leaving a decent sized scar. I unwrapped the bandages the rest of the way before dipping my foot in to test the water then immediately pulling it back out, the water was freezing! Sitting down on my knees, I carefully leaned over the pond. It wasn't that deep, about 6 and a half feet. You know what that means? The best way to warm up in water is to jump in! I took three big steps back and sucked in a deep breath. 1... 2... 3!

"Cannonball!" I yelled before plunging into the pool. The chill was fast and instant. But the rush of the jump kept me slightly warm. By the time I resurfaced I was adjusted to the chill of the pond.

"You bloody twat! Did you just do a cannonball into the pond?!" UK yelled from somewhere in the hut. I don't think it's necessary for me to mention he was mad.

"Come on man chill!"

The angry englishman stormed out of the house. In his right hand were my jeans, still wet from washing. "You're going to ruin my pond! That's the only source of clean water I have!"

"Didn't you say this is connected to some system. Shouldn't the water fix itself?"

"You nitwit, it takes a while for the water to replenish itself if too much of it is displaced!"

"Oh... my bad."

"Indeed your bad." He said huffing. "Now hurry and wash up!" UK stomped back to the hut mumbling under his breath.

I watched him angrily march off. Once he was out of sight I set to do what I was in the cold pond for. I sucked a breath and plunged deeper into the water. When I opened my eyes I looked around feeling my hair swish around me as I turned. It was hard to tell if the water was cloudy because of my poor vision or the dirt that was covering my body, might've been a combination of both. Would've been nice to have my goggles. Looking at my arms and legs I realized that the brit was right, I really was dirty. Needing more air, I resurfaced, happy to fill my lungs with air again. Without a soap, a rag, or one of those poofy shower things all I was left to just rub my hands to get the dirt off. While I cleaned myself off my thoughts drifted. I thought about my life 6 months prior, before all of this apocalypse junk happened. I thought of my family, well what was left of it, mainly my cousin Matthew. We were more like brothers than cousins. Was he still alive? I hadn't heard from him at all. Though it's not like I was able to text or e-mail him, the internet shut down a few weeks after most of the planet had been infected, and cell phones didn't work anymore since no one was around to run the grid. There was my friend in Japan too, Kiku. I think I mentioned him before. We became pen pals though the school system. We would write back and forth in English as a part of his english class, and we still kept writing after the school year was over. We were good friends, I hope he was still alive as well. I thought of a bunch more that were less interesting while I cleaned up. Taking another breath, I submerged myself in the water again. Running my fingers through my hair, I shook it up and combed it back out doing my best to get all the earth out of it.

Feeling I did a good enough job, I breached the surface one more, throwing my head back then shaking it in a poor attempt to dry my hair. I swam over to the edge of the pond, well more like paddled since the side wasn't far. Pulling myself out of the water, I shook again to dry. It was sorta fun, no wonder dogs did it this way. While shaking my head more and trying to knock the water out of my ears I called the Brit.

"Yo! UK, do you have any towels or something?" I yelled towards the little house he made.

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"Alright US you had your turn. I get to tell the story now."

"I didn't get to tell nearly as much as you did though!" US whined.

"The way you're telling the story is giving me a headache. Honestly I don't know how much longer I can listen to you, who taught you English?"

"Hey I may not know your fancy-shmancy English, but I think I tell the story fine."

"Whatever, it's my turn now. Sit tight, maybe if you don't complain like you did last time, I'll let you tell the story sooner." The Englishman sounded as if he were simply stating a fact, that there was no need to argue the point any longer.

"You sure you want to tell this next part?" He replied, sounding unsure of the other's decision.

"Yes I'm sure, now quiet down." The American opened his mouth to say more but quickly closed it again. He was getting a taste of his own medicine, he wasn't too happy about it.

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When the boy got back to my house, he was sopping wet and dripping all over my floor; at least he was clean now. I looked over him again, the American stood in the entryway, leaning against one side of it nonchalantly. His hair was shinier, the light from the open door created a halo on his head. The blond locks were weighed down by the water, his cowlick still stuck out, albeit limply now. The lad was indeed stronger than first thought he was. His loose shirt and bomber jacket hid his slightly muscular structure. He wasn't incredibly brawny, but in no way was he pudgy. Lightly defined arms and abs made up his upper body. He held his glasses in his right arm which was holding him up against the door frame. His boxers, their colors making up the flag of his home country, were heavy with water clinging to his skin and doing their best to hang on his hips with the weight trying to pull them down. US's legs were equally toned, water dripping down his body creating a small pool at his feet.

"UK, dude you have a towel or something I can use to dry off? Judging by the looks of it, you're not happy with the puddle I'm making."

The American was right. My hands were balled into fists held stiffly against my sides, my face was hot with fury, teeth clenched, I was fuming. If the boy was good for anything it was making me mad. "Of course I'm not happy about it! Do you have any idea how long it took me to make this shelter? Now you just come in here and wreck the place!" I sighed, pausing my rant and trying to calm myself down. "Yes, I have something you can dry off with." I said trying my best to calm my tone. "Wait right there and don't move."

Relaxed as I could, I pushed my chair away from where I was sitting. I set the lad's shirt, which I was mending, down onto the table I was seated at, carefully tucking the needle in the cloth so I wouldn't lose it. I made my way back to the closet, grabbing one of the two towels I had, then went back to find the American still standing in the doorway. He had put his spectacles back where they belonged, perched on his nose. When he saw me, his smile widened slightly. Still slightly upset with him over the puddle, I angrily thrust the towel at his smug face. "There, now dry off." I tried to make it sound like an order. "Hurry up, I don't need a second pond."

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 **A/N: Yay third Chapter done! So I've decided that a one chapter a week will work. I'll try to get the chapters uploaded every friday. Please don't forget to favorite, follow, and review! Especially review, I love to get feedback, so if you have anything please let me know. It also lets me know you like it (or don't and you want to help make it better) and with that it helps with the motivation to keep writing. Also, if there's enough demand I may be able to get it up to two chapters a week, but this depends on if my lovely beta thelostdoitsu can handle that. Anyway, please review. Until I write again, see you later!**


	4. Tangled

After US dried off, I allowed him to sit at the table with me. We sat in the room together silently. I worked on sewing the many gashes in his shirt closed and he just looked around the room, his face displaying his boredom. Suddenly, the lad spoke up and broke the calm silence of the room.

"So, uh," He started, unsure of his decision to start talking, "I appreciate you helping me out, mending my clothes and such."

"No need to thank me," I said, with little emotion in my voice, "it's dangerous to go around with clothes torn like these. You're putting yourself in danger by not caring for yourself, though I believe I mentioned that before." Grabbing a small pair of scissors of the table, I snipped the thread and tied the ends off. Sticking the needle in the small pin cushion I had I held the partially mended shirt up to check my work. The bright red sleeves had been fixed. Before, they were hidden under his jacket, so I hadn't seen their state of disrepair. The red cloth was more shreds then sleeves. While the boy had washed up and then dried off, I had managed to sew them back together.

US waited until I set the shirt back down to pick up the conversation again. I hadn't expected him to continue speaking. "Yea, but uh... are you by any chance done fixing my jeans? It'd at least like to wear something more than just my underwear."

How had I been such an idiot? I forgot that I'd taken the American's clothes, I was even fixing one of his garments right in front of him. Mentally I hit myself on the head for my stupidity. "R-Right right." My voice came out stuttering, as I just realized my house guest was practically naked sitting across from me. I felt a familiar heat rise to my cheeks as well. It was understandable to be a bit flustered. "Sorry about that. Wait right here, I'll go get them for you."

"No no!" He said standing up from the table, trying to interrupt me. I did my best to avoid my sight drifting downwards to his star spangled bottoms, still a tad bit wet they were melded to his body. I mentally hit myself once more, this time because I was letting my emotions get the best of me. US must've noticed my failed attempt as self restraint as his face flushed a warm pink spreading across his face. Though he made no attempt to sit back down. "I... uh..." The boy was having a hard time getting out a comprehensible sentence. "You've done enough, I-I want to do something, I want to help."

"I-If you want to help you can sit back down." I tore my view away from the lad, my voice holding a slight bite. Thankfully, he obeyed and sat back down, the warm pink changing to a bright red like the sleeves on his shirt. His eyes glued to the table, the color spreading to his ears. "J-Just, stay there, please. I'll go get your trousers." US just responded in a slight nod to show he had heard.

Getting up from the table once more, I made my way out of the room and through the house. I turned into the room I had set up for the American and grabbed his jeans. The torn knees were beyond repair as I didn't have any denim patches with me. I had added that to the list of supplies I needed to find. The frayed edge was only repairable by raising the hem which shortened them by a centimeter or two. "By around half an inch!" The left leg had been fixed, the long slashes in the cloth had been sewn together by me. US should be grateful I had needles capable of sewing through thicker fabric.

I grabbed the mended clothes and went back to the room where I found boy. He had managed to shake himself of his stiffness, but now had a new reason to be immobilized. During my absence, he managed to tangle himself up in the red thread I had left on the table. When he heard me enter the room he moved his focus from the self-afflicted handcuffs to me. With a pleading look in his eyes and a shy and weak smile on his face paired with the bright red on his cheeks and ears he looked to me for help.

"Uh, hey," He started weakly, "you're back."

"Yes I'm back, what were you doing while I was gone? I thought I told you to stay put." I tried not to sound too upset. Yes the American got on my nerves, but if I were to get mad at every little thing he does wrong, it would be bad for my health.

"Well, you were taking a while, and, well, I uh... got a bit tangled."

I sighed, that too was another thing I was doing more often with the boy around, I'd barely been with him for a day and he was already taking a toll on me. "Yes I can see that."

"Do you think you could, uh, cut me free?"

"Now that I can't do." I stated firmly. "Thread is hard to find and, thus, a valuable resource, I can't waste it by cutting you out of it."

"So you're just going to leave me here all knotted up?" The teen sounded alarmed.

"No course not, if I intended to do that I would've left you knotted to a tree. No what I'm going to do is simply untangle you." Putting the boy's jeans down I motioned for the boy to turn away from table. With him not facing inwards I pulled up a chair to sit across from him and sat down in it. "Come on now hold out your hands or I'll never be able to get them undone." The American shyly held out his arms giving me full view of the mess he had gotten himself into. I looked over the web of string carefully, if you start pulling at random the knot will only get worse. I glanced up at the boy, his head was turned away, his face and ears even darker than before. The look on his face gave away that he was uncomfortable with the situation. Doing my best to ignore how close I was to the boy, I set to untangle him. Thankfully, I hadn't been gone for too long, so the knot wasn't all that complex. God knows what would've happened if I had been gone longer. I grabbed the spool from the table and I started moving it through the loops of thread, rolling it up as I went. However, every now and then I made a mistake and only made things a tad bit worse, sometimes even tangling my own digits in the strands. In but a few moments, I had most of it undone, save for one piece of strange thread. Somehow after I had unknotted all the string, one piece remained, even after all the rest was back on the spool. It was wound onto the American's right pinky finger, and also around mine. Like it had never been connected to the spool, but that shouldn't be possible, it hadn't been attached to me before.

"US?" I tried to get the boy's attention, he turned his head to me slowly, as if he were afraid of what he might see. "Do you have any idea what this is?" I calmly asked, lifting my left hand showing the string that connected the two of us.

When he saw the red thread, his eyes widened in recognition, and disbelief. The previous heat had left his face, leaving only a light pink dust, but upon seeing the cord attaching us to each other, the full strength of his blush rapidly came back. He moved back in his seat tugging me forward with him, pulling me off my seat and yanking me onto his chest, heat rushed to my cheeks quickly, the sudden contact startling me, and embarrassing me.

My thoughts were interrupted when US shoved me off of him, pushing me back onto my chair. The jolt reeled me back into reality. The blue eyed American tried to say something, but everything that came out just sounded like jibberish, stuttering and stammering.

One more deep breath before I spoke. "Shh shh, just stop talking, or at least, attempting to talk." I tried to sound as calm. "Take a moment to just calm down, we can talk later." I didn't want him to feel bad. No, what was I thinking?! This was the American teen who got so easily got on my nerves. He follows every childish whim he has. It hasn't even been a day and yet, somehow he's knocked down all but one barrier that I had used to protect myself. As much as I try to deny it, he boy was growing on me. This is why I think teaming up during extreme situations is dangerous. The only barrier I had left what that the kid didn't know my real name, my last defence. That's what I thought then, while I sat in the chair opposite of the teen waiting for him to calm down, my left arm held out a bit giving him some space to move.

It took a bit, maybe five minutes, but US finally calmed down. Using his free hand he wiped his eyes. "You finally calmed down?" I asked, doing my best to keep the lad at ease. He nodded in response. "So do you think you can tell me what this string is without panicking this time?"

"Y-Yea, I can, sorry about earlier."

"Well judging from your previous actions this thread is a big deal."

"I-I guess so, you could say that.." He trailed off his voice dropping.

"Are you going to tell me or not?" I was starting to get a bit irritated again, it showed.

"I-I'm not sure you really want to know."

"Listen," by this point I sounded plenty angry to get my point across. "whatever this is it's obviously not going away anytime soon. I need to know what it is. You were able to yank me down when you pulled back, so the cord is obviously strong, I doubt cutting it is going to do anything. So if you really want to do any good in this situation you'll tell me what you know about the binding."

"A-Alright OK I'll tell you!" His voice raised in volume, he held up his arms defensively. I would've slumped back into my seat but I wasn't able to move without pulling US with me. "I-It's..."

"Come on man speak up, I can't hear you."

"I-It's... I-It's,"

* * *

 **A/N: Oooh, cliffie! Sorry for not uploading this yesterday, I've been busy with finals and stuff. I hope I didn't make you guys wait to much. Please let me know if you like it or have any suggestions! Until I write again!**


	5. A Link Between Countires

"OK OK OK! Just stooop!" The blue eyed boy burst out, interrupting the story. His face almost as red as the other described. "Just stop it!" He whined, pleading with the other.

"Oh yea?" The englishman said, his voice taunting the younger man. "What's wrong, what is it that I need to stop? I won't know unless you speak in complete sentences."

"Y-you know!"

"See, now that was a complete sentence, but it still doesn't tell me what's wrong. Come on US use your words." The Brit was almost singing his words by the last sentence. He was enjoying the American's reactions, maybe too much.

"You know what I mean! Y-you don't have to go into so much detail..." He said, voice being muffled as he hid his face.

"But that's what storytelling is about," his smirk faded into a small, genuine smile; the tone of his voice becoming softer, "painting a picture with your words to let the audience show what's going on. The nouns and verbs make up the outline, you can still see what it's meant to look like, but using adjectives is like adding color, the view becomes much more immersive and more entertaining with the added detail."

"W-well yea, but maybe I don't want the audience to see exactly what's going on..."

"Oh come on now don't tell me you're embarrassed."

"You weren't the one not wearing clothes!" He suddenly snapped raising his voice, a bit of timidness was still audible. Whether he was being defencive or apprehensive unclear. "Y-you weren't the one who had to sit there a-and, and..." His aggression faded just as fast as it grew.

The Englishman let out another exhale before speaking once more. "OK, OK, I'm sorry for upsetting you. Though you must understand, this is just how I tell tales, you think there aren't any parts I want to leave out?" A light laugh escaped from the Brit's mouth. "Honestly, you were the one who insisted we tell the entire story. Come on now, let's get back to the story."

Just as the man was about to speak again the other interrupted him."Wait."

"Yes?" He replied, patience in his tone.

"I, I want to tell the next part."

"By all means, please do."

* * *

"It's… Ah-kai ee-toe." I sorta stumbled over the word. You know, it being another language and all.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Uh, ah-kai ee-toe. At least that's how I think you say it. The term's Japanese, Kiku told me about it. It means red thread. It's believed that an invisible red thread connects two people who are destined to find each other. I-It's similar to our concept of soul mates."

I glanced up to see the Brit's reaction. His expression remained blank, and I looked back down. The two of us sat there in silence for a few uncomfortable minutes. Fidgeting I twisted my hands together as some sort of distraction. Then finally the other guy broke the silence.

He let out a big sigh. "I think you mean, Akai ito."

"-yea that's totally what I meant. What did I say?" I tried to sound confident, failing pretty badly, it was pretty clear I was nervous and uncomfortable.

UK shook his head. "Tsk, it's the pronunciation. You need to put equal stress on each syllable, otherwise it sounds wrong. It's how Japanese works. Anyway, if what you're saying is true this could be a problem." He trailed off looking out the window as if the answer was in his front yard, it wasn't.

"Uh, I don't remember much about this _thing_." I said, raising my right hand and gesturing to the red thread. "Maybe you could share that knowledge?"

"The one thing that's important right now is that these strings are supposedly unbreakable." He said something under his breath about fairies too.

"Sooo, you're saying we're stuck like this?"

"Precisely." By then, lots of the tension of the scene had faded. He placed his hand on his chin in thought, looking down towards the floor like it helped him think. Just when I thought the situation returned to comfortable, UK had to open his mouth again. "But what I don't understand, is why? Why us?"

If I had a dollar for every time I went from my regular tone to bright red, well I'd probably have five dollars, but that goes for a lot these days! Anyways, I'd have gained another dollar.

So yea, I may be the kind of an idealist. I like the prospect of happily ever afters and hero gets the damsel in distress situations. And, UK wasn't that bad. Yea he may be rough around the edges, a stickler for the rules, but he wasn't that bad. Wasn't hard to look at either. But to be perfectly honest, I hadn't had the worst of it yet. " _Intolerable prat!"_ Well long story short, I honestly didn't mind. If the string says we should be together, I don't see why not.

"I-Is that what you think? There's no reason for it?"

"Oh there's a reason for it," I still have no idea if this is what he actually said because he was mumbling, but this is what I heard, "the fairies must be trying to kill me now."

"Uh, fairies?"

"Hmm?" He broke his staring contest with the floor to look up at me. "Did you say something?"

"Oh, uh, nothing." I assumed I misheard him, and he went back to his staring contest.

The tension of the room was still there, though now it was awkward like: no-one-saying-anything-I'll-just-keep-sitting-here-and-do-nothing, instead of like: holy-crap-why-is-he-so-close-ahh-I'm-still-not-wearing-any-pants-I'm-freaking-out. Still though, silence, it bothers me. I can't explain it either so don't try asking. I decided to try to start up another conversation, hoping that this one wouldn't be as awkward as the last.

"If we're stuck like this, how are we going to do anything?" I said, attempting to get the guy's attention, I succeeded. "I mean, we can't get more than what, two, two and a half, maybe three feet away from each other. It's not possible for me to put on a shirt with you attached to me. What are we supposed to do?"

"The only thing we can do, make it work. We'll have to try to stay in here as much as possible, it might be too dangerous for us to fight linked together. Luckily I have almost everything we need in here. I'm sure it's not going to be a pleasant experience, but it could've been worse."

I laughed a bit at that last part. "How could this be any worse?"

"The sting could've followed the Chinese version and have us attached by our ankles."

"Yea that would be worse."

After that complete mess, I let UK get back to fixing my shirt. I told him there was no need since I couldn't get the shirt on now, but he insisted. Finally I got my jeans back on. That helped calm me down a lot. There's a big difference between not wearing a shirt and not wearing a shirt _and_ pants. UK had me move my chair around the table so we sat next to each other instead of across to allow for more wiggle room.

* * *

 **Notes on cultures!** (Because I think as Hetalians we can all appreciate these kinds of things.)

Akaito: Better known as "The Red String of Fate" in western culture (like a few of you guessed). I believe everything UK says is true. Though I have found that the 'pinky in Japan ankle in China' rule is not always true. Japan's pinky version is more popular in the west (or at least where I live) and I have found Chinese examples using the pinky version.

Japanese Pronunciation: What UK says here is also true. Words in the Japanese language are made up of syllables. Unlike in languages from Western culture each syllable is equally stressed or not stressed. Two consonants together means that constant sound is repeated. Like in Hatafutte Parade. The way I was taught you start the sound but it gets cut off. (I'm not sure if this is true though please feel free to correct me!) There's also when you have two "vowel" sounds together, the sound is simply elongated. Like in Marukaite Chikyuu, you just hold the 'u' sound longer. I guess songs aren't the best example for this kind of explanation, eh he.

* * *

 **A/N: I am sooo sorry for the delay of this chapter! I've been having a bit of trouble coming up with what to do next and was drawing a blank for a while. I did not forget about this story! I just took a bit of a break to try to get some new ideas (it didn't really work... any suggestions?) and merely didn't feel like what I had was good enough to upload. By the time I was able to complete this chapter to the bare minimum of my standards I was waaaay over my due date and I didn't want to make those few readers wait any longer (love you guys!).** **I know what at the very least half of the next chapter will be. Hopefully I can come up with more. Anyways, thanks for reading this far! Don't forget to review, and all that good stuff. See ya later!**


	6. Are You Smarter Than A Gardener?

Nothing else really happened that day until it was time for dinner. I couldn't really do anything, being tied to another human being and all. Not being able to go anywhere, I spent the rest of the afternoon just staring out the window. OK, not really. I spent a decent amount of time watching UK fix my shirt. I-I mean it's not like I had anything better to be doing! Anyways, that day I learned two things: one, sewing is a lot harder (and boring) than it looks, and two, UK can't cook. Now before I get to that catastrophe, let's go over what happened before.

UK had just finished patching up my shirt. By that time I was extremely bored, so I was playing with the little red thread that tied the two of us together. I had been thinking about how such a small little thing had already caused us so much trouble. But my thoughts were interrupted by an english voice.  
"Stop messing with the string, you might make it knot even more." It said, sounding sort of annoyed.

"Well sorry," I replied, sounding just as irritated, "I'm just bored, I wish this stupid string wasn't so literal." I let out a huff, crossed my arms, and leaned back in my seat, finishing it off with a pout. When I looked up the brit had a scowl on his face that said: 'Why did I let this idiot out of my trap.' The way I see it UK's comment said more bad things about himself other than me. So I simply upped the pout. The blond brit just rolled his eyes at me.

After a bit, UK spoke up to break the silence. "Here, I want to try something." He said while staring down at my shirt which was held in his hands. Before I could respond, he tossed the shirt to me, and thanks to my awesome reflexes, I managed to catch it. "Put that on."

"But, the thread." I was confused by the Brit's request. How did he expect me to put it on?

"Don't think about that just try to put it on. I want to test something."

UK looked like a scholar intent on testing a new theory. I'd seen that look before, but this time it gave me a sense of comfort. Giving him a slight smile in return, I nodded and tried to put on the shirt. And guess what? It actually worked! The shirt completely ignored the string like some sort of game glitch or something!

"H-How?" I asked dumfounded.

The Brit simply smirked, obviously happy that he was right. "Simple, magic."

"Uh, could you, oh I don't know, maybe be more specific?"

"Oh alright. You see the legend of the red string is meant to bring two destined together. From birth two are magically tied and as their lives go on, the deity known as Yue Lao shortens the thread pulling the two together. So I had a thought: What if something comes into contact with the thread, but doesn't intend on breaking it? I theorised that the thread would simply phase through it, and I was right." The whole time he spoke UK has a proud smile on his face. He looked like he just figured out the mystery of the universe. I couldn't help but smile back.

"Wow, well thanks for finding out I can get a shirt on and off."

"You're certainly welcome." The Brit couldn't stop smiling. To be honest it was adorable.

Things were going perfectly well after that. I had all my clothes, UK was in a good mood. Too bad that all had to change when it was time for dinner.

UK had gotten up from the small table and stretched out his arms. "Well, I'm heading out to get some food. We'll need to have something to eat soon since it's getting late."

I got up as well. "Well, wherever you go I go right? Besides, I can help. Let's get packed!" Pushing my chair out, I went to get up and start gathering supplies before UK stopped me.

"No need to pack, we're just going outside the house." He replied calmly, his early happiness had faded a bit, but he still had a faint grin on his face. "Didn't you notice my gardens while you were out there? I know they're not much, but we can get almost everything needed concerning food here. If you insist on coming along you may." When he finished, he turned to leave. I quickly got up to follow, not wanting to get tugged by my pinky again.

The two of us continued on to gather some food outside the base. The whole prospect of the base amazed me. It was like tucked into its own separate dimension. It was it's own little ecosystem, minus all the wildlife. While we harvested some food, I talked to UK about the small home he had created.

"So how did you get this place?" I asked, grabbing an apple from a tree.

"It depends on what you mean by that." He said, while gathering some carrots. "Hey don't pick that. We don't need any apples! Go grab a potato or two instead."

I shrugged and took a bite out of the apple, I also forgot to swallow before speaking. OK I didn't forget, I just didn't, it's a habit OK! "What I mean is, how'd you build this place? It's amazing. The whole situation has only lasted half a year, getting all of this set up would be impossible." While I spoke, I found the potatoes and pulled a few out of their planter.

"It's simple, I didn't start 6 months ago."

"Care to elaborate?"

UK sighed in a fond way. "I found this place when I was really young. I would escape to here to get away from my brothers. I would play here and build forts, do my school work, anything. This place was always here whenever I needed an escape. Later on, when I could, I built a garden here. Over the years I expanded it until it was this big, though most of it was flowers before the apocalypse. I'd spend my vacations here so I had people build that small house. I would've never dreamed I'd use this place as a shelter before."

UK's eyes shone as he spoke about his past. I just couldn't help but smile a bit. "What happened to not sharing personal info?" Teasing the Englishman probably wasn't the best thing to do, but I just couldn't help it.

The Brit stopped in his tracks, his hand in mid carrot grab. In no time flat, his face went from stunned to embarrassed. When he opened his mouth to speak again, his words were stuttered. "W-wha, w-well I, y-you see" the longer he went on the redder his face got, "I-it's not my fault!" UK suddenly yelled. "Y-you're the one who asked idiot!"

The blond Englishman yanked out the carrot he had been harvesting and quickly gathered the other foods he had collected and stormed back off to the house. I didn't expect that kind of reaction from him. Quickly, I grabbed the potatoes I had plucked out of the planter and raced after him. I have to admit his reaction was cute but I did feel a bit bad. I also had to hurry since I wasn't in the mood to face plant into the gardens. " _Though, now that I think about it, shouldn't my weight have yanked you back?"_ " _It's magic you dolt you don't question it."_

By then, I was starting to wish the base wasn't as big as it was. I was almost winded by the time I got to the house. When I got inside, I set down the potatoes on the table, my apple had been left back out in the gardens. UK was standing in the tiny kitchen setting a pot of water over the fire.

"Dude, don't just run off like that. We're tied together remember." He didn't say anything back. "Uh, dude? Hey look I'm sorry for what I said earlier. I was joking, honest! I mean, I just said the truth, and there wasn't anything really wrong with what I said. You are really smug most of the time, and I thought it would be nice to point out your mistake, maybe change that attitude a bit. I guess what I'm trying to say is; hey what's up with you?"

My apology speech had been interrupted when UK started laughing. It started out as a quiet snicker but quickly became a loud cackle. "You, you are really bad at apologies." He managed to say in between fits of laughter.

"Well you're obviously feeling better so I think I did a pretty good job."

"Who, who's the smug one now?" The Englishman wiped the laughter tears from his eyes.

"Hey I can be a little smug if I want! I'm a hero after all!" I stuck my hands on my hips and struck a heroic pose.

"A hero huh?"

"That's right! Just think about it, one lone hero wanders the forests of what used to be the greater London area. He had been on the run for as long as he could remember, desperate to stay alive and out of the brainless horde. When out of nowhere, he was strung up and hung from a tree! Our hero struggles against the bonds, but whoever had crafted them was skilled. Just when he had given up hope, a light shines through the dark! The hero met the prince who was oh so kind as to free him after wrongly trapping him. Once free, the hero vowed to stay with the prince and protect him in exchange for his kind gesture. Flattered, the royal brought the hero back to his magical castle where the hero was treated to a bath. But the magical castle had other plans, with the strange powers it possesses, the hero and the prince were bound by their little fingers. What was to happen to the hero and the prince next? How will they overcome the terrors of the outside threat? Stay tuned to find out!"

* * *

 **A/N: Hello dear readers! I am super sorry about not uploading. I've been having connection troubles and since I've been writing the story on a google doc I haven't been able to access this. I think you may be happy to know that I have two more chapters completed that I haven't uploaded so I have my safety net back! Expect new chapters every Friday! I also wanted to say something else, I've got an idea to (hopefully) boost the reads of this fic, or at least the reviews. Don't get me wrong I love each and every one of you that read this, like it or not! But I also love knowing what people think about my writing. In my first fic I wrote out goals of reviews to get more, it worked. So I'm going to try it again, but with a different incentive. When this fic reaches 15 reviews, I'll post the prologue I've been writing on the side. No one knows about it, not even my beta! I'm the only one who knows how it goes, that is until the goal is meet and I need it beta read. So if you want that prologue please remember to review! I'm only going to count one review from one person per chapter so no spams! Thank you so much for reading this far. Until I write again!**


	7. Cooking Monarch

I think I forgot to mention that I also learned that making a bit of a fool of myself made UK happy. As the hero, I think that if all it takes is to be a bit of a goof, it's a noble sacrifice, hell the first time I wasn't even trying. With a smile still on his face, UK turned from his spot at the fire and playfully punched me in the arm.

"You dolt, stop messing around and help out." He turned back around reached into the drawer and a cupboard below the counter. When the blond turned back around, he placed a small bowl and a paring knife. "There, now peel those potatoes for me." UK grabbed another small knife and sat down in the chair next to me. Once settled, he set to peeling his carrots.

"So, what are we even making?"

"Well if we were under normal circumstances it would be beef stew with carrots and potatoes. Ha, what am I even saying, if we were under normal circumstances we wouldn't even be in this mess."

"Soooo, what is it instead?" I looked down, peeling potatoes is harder than it looks, way harder.

"We don't have any beef so I guess it's just potato and carrot stew. It's a really simple dish, we don't need much, to be honest there isn't much I can make without things I'd need to find from the outside, so we might end up having this often." UK stood up and headed over to one of the many kitchen cabinets and came back with a cutting board and half an onion.

I glanced down at the pile of peeled veggies, the carrots were completely outnumbering the potatoes. "How did you get so good at this?" I was almost in awe of his skill with a knife.

"I... wait I'm not falling for that again." The soft smile faded and changed to a victorious smirk.

"Hey, don't act like I was trying to trick you or anything! I was just curious, that's all." By then I had finally finished one of the potatoes, you'd be amazed how long it takes with all the little bumps and crevices. "Sorry I asked I guess."

The blond brit let out a sigh. "Fine how about this, we can share small things, for everything I tell you you tell me something, and vice versa. No asking about names, family, pets, or anything else you wouldn't want to tell someone you just met."

I smiled, UK was opening up to me! I mean, it wasn't that much, but tiny steps right? "That's alright with me. I guess you get to ask first since you already shared."

"Where did you come from? I assume from somewhere in the United States but I was hoping for something a bit more detailed than that. It's a big country you know."

"Yea it is, and an awesome one at that! Well, I'm from New York, New York, you've gotta know where that is right? I'm not _really_ from there though, I grew up in Washington. Not the capital, the state! You know the pacific northwest, two states above California, right below Canada. I don't blame you if you don't know it, most people don't. What about you? I'm guessing that you're from somewhere around here since you came here as a child often."

"You'd be correct about that. And for your information 'around here' is known as Epping. We're in Epping forest at the moment." I wasn't able to tell because it was fast and small but I think UK was smiling. It was then the thought crossed my mind that the Englishman might actually be enjoying himself! " _Owww oww owwwww, what was that for?" "Too much sarcasm."_

"Hmm, well now it's my turn to ask a question. How are you so good at this? I mean sure I grew up in a big, techy city I never did much of this plant stuff."

"Hmph, I guess you already forgot didn't you? I was a gardener remember? I did this 'plant stuff' for a living. As for the peeling I've been living here for a while, cooking for myself so I've had practice. Speaking of which, how did you get through the past six months?"

"I couldn't make my own food well enough to survive on so I just foraged. I ate berries, nuts, I hunted a bit and cooked that well enough to the point it was edible and I wouldn't die from anything like salmonella. Anything I could get without too much prep was food. And to think I wasted all that time on twinkies, they don't really last forever you know?"

"Of course they can't last forever. It's still food, I'm surprised they're even edible with the shelf life they have."

I could tell he wanted so say something else, most likely point out something wrong with what I said, but for some reason the guy didn't.

The rest of the time until we ate was relatively uneventful. Except for when the boiling water somehow caught fire. Yea don't ask me how that happened I have no idea. My dad was a biologist not a chemist. Oh wait we haven't gotten to that point yet. Uh, forget I said anything about my dad. Anyways, UK fixed the fire problem. No one died from that or got hurt, and we somehow managed to still fix our beefless beef and potato stew. This was the first, and sadly, not the last time I would encounter UK's cooking.

When he first put the bowl in front of me I was a bit uneasy. I don't know if I mentioned it before but I'm not much of a cooker. I mean, I can cook just as good as the next guy. I'm more of a barbeque and grill person and there's not a lot of opportunities to do that during an apocalypse.

But even with my limited culinary skills I could tell something was off with the stew. The carrots were charred and looked more like black lumps than veggies, the potatoes looked the same, but a bit bigger. The lack of meat made it more of a soup than a stew. Or slightly flavored water with coal chunks half floating in it. But when I looked up from the meal to ask the brit what the hell was this supposed to be, his face just made me stop.

He had on the widest smile I'd seen that wasn't some sort of smirk or sneer. His green eyes were lit up. His cheeks were dusted a light pink. UK held his chin up, like always his posture was picture perfect, but the way his arms were crossed and he held his shoulders you could just see how happy he was. If we were in an anime UK'd have sparkle effects all around him. It was like, the fact that someone was eating something he made filled him with a sense of pride that was like nothing I'd ever seen.

There was no way I could crush that, it would be like killing an adorable baby animal. Just extinguishing that pure light, who can do that? So, I made the decision to shut my mouth and just eat the food. I took a medicine approach, do it fast and let as little of it touch your tongue as possible. Because of the carrot and potato lumps I had to do a bit of chewing. You know what? It wasn't bad in the sense that it tasted bad, but more that it lacked taste. When I glanced back up at the chef he was still just as excited as before I ate that spoonful and eagerly awaiting a response.

"Well, how is it?"

I swallowed the stew (and my pride) and returned a smile. "It's great! Definitely better than anything I could do with that little."

Somehow the Brit's expression brightened even more, turning my forced smile into a genuine one. It was like I said before; UK was an outwardly 'gloomy' person, snarky and judgey, a pessimist. But those times where you can get him to show how he really felt, when you can get him to smile, to laugh; he goes from cloudy to full on sunshine.

Somehow both of us survived that meal. I'd been feeling like I wasn't helping out enough so when UK went to clean up I helped him out. It had been a very eventful first day. I went from exploring in a forest, getting hung upside down, traveling to what seemed like a pocket dimension, magically tied to my supposed 'soul mate' who by the way had created the trap that caught me upside down in a tree. After that we learned a bit about each other, I learned that UK isn't the greatest of cooks, and more fun stuff. With all those adventures of the day we only had one more obstacle, bed time.

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 **A/N: Sorry I'm a bit late with this chapter. I'm going off to a convention tomorrow and I've been spending most of my time today on preparations. My offer still stands for that prologue! Thank you so much for reading! Until I write again!**


	8. I'm running out of clever puns help

The teen paused. He looked over to the other man and gave him a questioning look. The green eyed blond crossed his arms and pouted slightly. "What's that for?"

"I was, kinda wondering when you were going to take over." He fiddled with this hands like he usually did when he needed a distraction or felt nervous. "It's been awhile since you stopped me sooooo."

The British boy smiled. "It's because there's no need to interrupt you. I figured that if I let you tell the story more you might actually get a little better. So far you're doing, at the very least a little better. Now shush up and keep going."

US shrugged and continued with the story.

* * *

During dinner clean up, we found out that the string could expand sometimes; however, the string was also picky. It seemed to favor UK more than me, it was really unfair. The Brit had left to do whatever so I really had nothing else to do. If the base didn't look magical before it certainly did now. The sun had set the clearing outside got dimmer; sunlight replaced with moonlight. As I watched out the window, the colors of the sky changed in all kinds of deep blues and purples. Hundreds of fireflies lit up the area. At first the stars came out one by one, as the sky got darker more and more began to light up the small portion of the sky visible through the trees.

Staring up at the stars I lost track of the time. I always did when looking up into space; my imagination would turn on full force thinking about all of the things that could be up there, how much we haven't explored, how far away all those lights in the sky really were. While I was distracted UK came out from the hall.

"Having fun?" He asked in that cheeky tone. When I turned to look at him he had changed out of his military-punk get up and into PJs. The top and bottom matched both being a light and bright blue, the trim was white, and 'A K' was stitched into the breast pocket. His arms were crossed as he leaned on the door frame.

"Oh yea staring out the window for who knows how long is the best entertainment ever." I could hear the other man scoff when I rolled my eyes.

"No need for that much sarcasm." UK pushed off the wall and walked over sitting down across from me. The closer he got the shorter the red thread connecting us got. "I hate to tell you but that's going to become a frequent activity. It's better to stay safe in here than to go out and risk getting infected."

I glanced over the Englishman's clothes once more. "So, I guess we're hitting the hay now?"

"Mhmm, and I'm guessing you don't have pajamas."

"Hey this is the first actual shelter I've been in for a few months, I think it's understandable that I don't have any pjs."

"Well it can get chilly so it's up to you if you want to keep your clothes on or not." UK stood up from his seat. "Come on let's get you to your room. You're lucky I even have a guest bedroom here."

He lead me through the hallway of the small house, and I mean small house. The kitchen and dining room were scrunched together, with a hall off one side. Down the hall was a small bathroom and two small bedrooms. It was a nice house don't get me wrong, it was probably in some of the best conditions I've seen in a long time. It lacked electricity, and the plumbing wasn't the best. But it worked, and that's in short supply these days. The two of us stopped outside the two rooms at the end of the hall.

"This one here is my room." He stated gesturing to the room on the left. "And this on here is going to be yours."

I opened the door leading into my room and stuck my head in to look around. The inside wasn't that impressive; a full sized bed with a small trunk at the foot of it, a nightstand next to the bed, and a window that looked out on the farm. I wanted to compare it to UK's room so I stepped out from the doorway back into the hall and tried to look into his, which was hard since the door was still closed.

"Hey don't be snooping, the rooms are practically the same so don't complain. Mine just happens to be decorated."

I opened up my mouth to retort but UK stopped me before I said anything.

"Don't start, the reason the other room isn't decorated is because it's a _guest_ room. Honestly all I have are some pictures and what not, it's not like I have extra furniture or something." He yawned and stretched, looking very adorable while he did so. "Now if I were you I would shut your mouth and get some sleep. It's getting late as it is and I have plans for tomorrow."

UK turned and went into his room, closing the door behind him. Left without any other options, I went to go into my room. Except that I couldn't. I got as far as opening the door and one step inside but after that I was kept from proceeding by my little finger. It was at that moment I decided that the string definitely didn't like me. When I turned back the string slacked, and when I got into the doorway it tightened on me. I tried to get slack in the thread then run into the room, I tried to pull on the string, I tried holding slack and releasing it as I walked into the room. But no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get past the doorway.

I couldn't get into my room, and I was way too tired to sleep in the hall. So with that I was left with only one option, as the Brit for help. To be honest I was kind of nervous. I was worried that he had already fallen asleep. Maybe he wouldn't wake up? Maybe he _would_ wake up but he'd be mad and wouldn't help me. All I could do was ask.

"Um, UK?" I knocked on his door. "We have a problem..." I heard him roll around in his bed. But he didn't even come over to the door he most likely had just rolled over so he wouldn't be muffled by the blankets and pillows.

"Wot is it?" He groaned, his accent seemed to get sharper when he's tired.

"I can't get into my room. Like, I literally cannot step foot into the bedroom."

I heard UK actually get out of his bed this time and stomp over to the door, sounding both angry and tired. The door swung open revealing a very fed up and done englishman.

"Wot do you mean you can't get in your bloody bedroom?"

"Exactly what I said, I can't get in the room. Uh, here let me show you." I demonstrated to UK how the pinky string wouldn't let me get past the door frame. When I looked back to him his face was in his hand.

"God damn it, how the hell do you manage to make every single little thing into an enormous problem? If it's not you it's the bloody fairies and their matchmaking." UK dragged his hand further down his face. I knew he must have been tired since he was talking about that I don't believe in such things! I do believe in fairies! I do! I do! " _He's just saying that because of that Peter Pan movie."_ Hey, not true! " _Yes it is."_

Anyways, aside from that, I learned at that point that UK had two language modes, gentleman and swearing sailor, the second one happening when he's running low on energy. In this short short time we've known each other I keep learning little things about UK, I definitely don't hate it. In anycase I'm just glad he agreed to get me down from that tree.

I wanted to try to calm UK down, but I'm not really the best at that. What I tried to make comforting turned out sarcastic. "Yeah yeah I know it's really frustrating for me too." The brit glared at me letting me know I wasn't helping to any degree. "So what are we going to do to fix it?"

UK sighed. "I'm honestly so tired I can't deal with this properly. Just, just get in here for now." He stepped aside gesturing for me to join him.

Taking a deep breath I walked into the room, thankful that I was actually able to enter it. UK followed after me leaving the door open, why I don't know. He plopped himself onto the bed, he might've fallen asleep right then if I hadn't said anything.

"So, where am I sleeping?"

UK didn't even bother to respond with words. Instead he just pointed to the spot on the bed next to him. I'm thankful he was face down in the pillow because my face turned 10 shades of red darker. Don't get me wrong I like the guy! But seriously I had only met him earlier that day and things were already going really fast as is. I opened my mouth to add on more but he had already fallen asleep.

As a hero wasn't going to give up and walk out then. After all it was either sleep in the bed or sleep on the floor in the hall. Nothing was going to happen either UK was already asleep. So why did my face still feel so hot? I tried to shake it off. Opting to leave my clothes on I carefully slipped into bed.

I looked over to UK who was still asleep face down in the sheets. His hair was still as choppy and messy as ever. The thought of what his hair might look like when he woke up. My hair isn't picture perfect when I wake up, so the thought of what the brit's might look like made me smile. Though I think just looking at the cute guy was making me smile plenty.

I wasn't quite able to sleep yet, I had spent quite a while doing nothing but hanging upside down in a tree. So I think it's understandable that I'd have extra energy. I also felt like I was younger than my european friend, not by much a few years. Maybe the fact he was tired is just because he's older. I'm not sure though, like I already said, I'm no biologist.

While I was thinking about all that, UK shifted around in the bed. He mumbled something in his sleep; something about flying bunnies. UK moved about a bit more eventually he moved his arms up and hugged his pillow. I figured he must have been having a good dream. Personally I find any dream that lacks flesh eating monsters a good dream, but flying bunnies work too.

A lot had happened that day. Like most days, I had almost died, and thankfully I also didn't die. I was saved by a stranger and even though we hadn't even known each other for an entire day I had already learned so much about him. It made me wonder how long it would be until I learned his actual name. I had paired up once before during these six months; with my brother/cousin. I already told you about Mattie right? We got separated a while back. All I can do is hope he's OK. I had the feeling though that this pair would last longer, maybe even longer than this disaster itself.

* * *

 **Notes on Cultures!**

Fireflies: This one isn't really that cultural, it's more of a setting thing. There are no fireflies in the United Kingdom! None what so ever, they have glow worms but those don't fly.

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 **A/N: Hey! Guess who isn't dead, and is back to writing! I can't tell how long it's been since I uploaded a chapter but I know it's been way to long. Good news and bad news, bad news is that I lost my beta. I have no idea where they went, so I'm looking for a new one, maybe 2. Good news is that I'm back to working on the story on a regular basis. Sorta neutral news is that I'm writing the story a little differently. I have a friend and we're playing out the story as a role play. It's very basic stuff and I add the details later, so expect more updates in the near future, hopefully once a week like usual. Once again that's for reading. Until I write (or I guess it's edit now) again!**


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